Alioto Dares NFL to Punish Raiders

A day after NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue acknowledged the possibility of sanctioning Al Davis for conduct detrimental to the league, the Raiders’ attorney angrily challenged them to try. “This is not an issue between the NFL and the Raiders, but the NFL and the judicial system,” Joseph M. Alioto said Thursday. “[The NFL] is playing with fire, and if they continue to do it they’re going to get burned.”

Alioto, the lead attorney in the club’s failed $1-billion lawsuit against the league, said the NFL has no authority or jurisdiction to punish the Raiders. Not only does that violate the team’s right to due process, he said, it intimidates others who might have legitimate cases against the league.

“It’s also getting dangerously close to obstruction of justice, in order to prohibit courts and juries from deciding legal and civil issues between parties,” he said.

NFL spokesman Joe Browne said Tagliabue only referred to sanctions when questioned about them by reporters at the end of the league owners’ meetings outside Chicago.

“As Commissioner Tagliabue said, our clubs are now focused on the upcoming season,” Browne said. “Any additional comment regarding possible disciplinary action against Al Davis for conduct detrimental to the league would be premature at this point.”

On Wednesday, Tagliabue told reporters: “All sports leagues’ bylaws contemplate that other owners--either through their executive committee or through another league authority--can suspend an owner or take action on other conduct that’s detrimental to the league.

“It’s happened in hockey. It’s happened in our league, when I suspended [former San Francisco 49er owner] Eddie DeBartolo. Our bylaws are clear. Other owners, as the executive committee of the league, can evaluate an owner’s conduct. They can determine whether it’s a breach of the bylaws and act accordingly.”

DeBartolo was fined $1 million and suspended for the 1999 season for his involvement in a scheme to fix the bidding for a riverboat gambling license in Louisiana.

The Pittsburgh Steelers were fined $150,000 in 2000 for salary-cap violations and were forced to forfeit their third-round draft pick this spring.

Last year, Davis pushed for Cleveland Brown President Carmen Policy to be suspended for a year for salary-cap violations with the 49ers in 1997. The league did not suspend Policy but fined him $400,000.

“Conduct detrimental to the league” is a catch-all phrase that could refer to Davis suing the league, but might also refer to his rankling the league and fellow owners over the years--from referring to Tagliabue’s recent testimony as “a raft of lies” to testifying for the defunct USFL in its 1986 lawsuit against the NFL. Davis has been involved several times in litigation against the league.

Even before the Raider verdict, Policy called for the league to consider taking action against Davis.

“I do think it should be looked into very carefully, and after a cool and unemotional review of the circumstances, I think he should be disciplined accordingly,” Policy told the Cleveland Plain Dealer last week.

But, Alioto said, the bylaws cannot impinge on the legal rights of a citizen to “seek resolution of your disputes in the courts rather than on the streets.” He said he would have no hesitation in going back to the trial judge to bar the league from punishing Davis, although the Raiders have not decided whether to appeal the verdict.

“I guess the commissioner and the owners need to know that besides their own constitution we have other constitutions also that are a little bit higher in prestige,” he said.

Alioto also took issue with the notion the Raiders must pay the NFL’s legal expenses. League rules stipulate that if a member team sues the NFL and loses, the team must shoulder all the court costs. The rule was enacted in 1997.

But there is a disagreement in this case over which side should pay the league’s bill. The Raiders say theirs was a countersuit--not a suit--that began in 1995, and is exempt from that rule. Not so, says the NFL, arguing the Raiders filed a separate suit in state court in 1999 after their claims were thrown out of federal court.